More About Benny Hill

I've been watching some more of The Benny Hill Show - there's a Roku channel that streams them daily, full unexpurgated episodes as originally broadcast on ITV, rather than the cut down half hour versions prepared for US showings which often show up even in the UK.  As noted before, they are fascinating to watch for a variety of reasons, not least that the culture references seem increasingly obscure - you have to be of a certain age to even know who some of the people Hill is parodying at all.  Most recently, I watched the sole episode produced in 1978, (by the mid seventies Hill was usually putting out three shows a year but, in common with other 'big name' TV stars of the era, he wasn't contractually tied to a specific number of shows a year).  It was notable that there was a significant reduction in the more sexist aspects - fewer sketches with Benny leering at much younger women who are showing lots of cleavage or arse cheeks - and a greater focus on parodying various TV personalities of the day, including Melvyn Bragg and Dave Allen.  The Dave Allen sketch, in particular, is interesting as it seems to be an attempt to address the whole issue of the various 'racial' jokes and sketches that often featured prominently in earlier shows.  It features Dave Allen, (in his trademark chair and glass of whiskey from his BBC show), attempting to tell a series of 'race' jokes about blacks, Pakistanis and the Irish, but being interrupted each time by someone of that ethnicity objecting to his racism.

Of course, the sketch itself, whatever its intent, is problematical, not least because Allen wasn't a comedian noted for telling racist jokes.  Granted, he told plenty of jokes about Irishmen, but he was Irish himself.  Rather, he was better known for weaving elaborate tales with a comic and often surreal pay off.   It's also problematical because an earlier sketch in the show had been a variation on the format of Hill's generic 'oriental' character not being understood by an English interviewer because of his accent - except that this time he's replaced by Hill and Jackie Wright playing a pair of Irish brothers with thick accents, (Wright - the little bloke who always got his bald head slapped - actually was Irish).  Arguably,  pair of Irishmen is less racist than Hill in yellow face, accompanied by Bob Todd in black face as a Pakistani, (it's certainly less cringe worthy to watch today, but it is still playing on racial and cultural stereotypes.  So, does this 1978 edition of The Benny Hill Show mark a step forward in its evolution?  Well, perhaps.  The reduction in the sexism is welcome, (although we still get the traditional finale of an overweight middle aged man being chased around by women in their underwear while 'Yakety Sax' plays), the focus on the parodies is welcome, allowing Hill to showcase his talents as a comic actor and impressionist, but the attempts to address the race-based sketches are decidedly weak and somewhat hypocritical.  Interestingly, Hill once claimed, after his show's cancellation in the eighties, that he wanted to move the programme's focus more toward the parodies and sketches while cutting down the 'sexy' stuff with scantily clad girls, but Thames TV always wanted more of the latter.  Their problem, apparently, was that the shows, like the 1978 show, with less sexual innuendo and more celebrity parody got lower viewing figures.  Just days before died, Hill was offered a new contract by Central TV - it would have been interesting to see what format he might have employed for these new shows.